Credit or store order



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" C. SHEMPSTEAD.

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ATTORNEYS.

lNrTnD STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES S. l-IEMPSTEAD, OF FAIRCHANCE, PENNSYLVANIA.

CREDIT 0R STORE ORDER.-

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 400,569, dated April 2, 1889. lApplication filed March 2., 1888. Serial No. 265,903. (No modela T0 @ZZ whom t may concern.-

Beit known that I, CHARLES S. HEMPSTEAD, of Fairchance, in the county of Fayette and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Credit or Store Orders, of which the following is a full, clear,V

and exact description.

y This invention relates to orders used by merchants and others, mainly by retailers, who sell goods in small quantities that aggregate in value a limited and specied sum. This total sum, for which credit is given on the face of the order and which may have been paid in advance or be collectible after the order has been used up, entitles the customer or holder of the order to make a series of separate purchases of varying amounts each until the full value of the order has been consumed,

ranged both to express regular and irregular1 progressive numbers; but the style of order which is preferred and upon which this invention is an improvement has arranged upon the face of it a series of columns of regular progressive amounts, omitting intermediate fractions, which amounts are punched to indicate purchases or additions till the whole value of the order has been consumed; butinstead of completing in these columns the full amount of the order I stop the same short of that amount by a fixed sum, which is made up by a supplementary column of the intermediate fractions, whereby the progressive cancellation of t-he order, including amounts which take in the intermediate fractions, may be made and the making of change is avoided, and combined with these two sets of columns is also another column of symbols or marks scribed, and specifically pointed out in the claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specilication, in which the drawing represents a face View of a credit-order embodying my invention.

The order A shown in the accompanying drawing, which is represen ted with an attached stub,has the usual heading,wi th blanks for date, name, and place of business of the party issuing the order, name of the party in whose favor the order is, and amount for which the order is issued. The rows or columns b of regular progressive amounts, omitting intermediate fractions, are, as in the order to which l have hereinbefore referred, represented to run transversely of the order, and are here shown as each containing, with the exception of the last column, b,`igures or numbers indicating ifty cents by increases of ve' cents in the successive figures or numbers throughout each of said columns b, supposing the amount contained in each of said columns to be equal but the last column, b', indicates or contains a lesser amount-say twenty-five cents*by increases of five cents each, with its last figure or number indicating an amount in cents which stops short by twenty-five cents of the amount for which the order is filled up--here supposed to be ten dollars, ($10.) The use of these columnsb b', each successive division in which is numbered to show an increase of five cents, is the same as has heretofore been practiced. Thus, supposing the holder of the order to make a purchase of the value of iive cents, then the first figure (5) on the first column, l), is punched. If his next purchase is eighty-live cents, then, adding the two amounts together, the space marked 90 in the second column is punched, and so onfor any number of succeeding purchases, the last-punched space indicating the total amount which has been used up out of the whole value of the order. It will be seen, however, that these columns h b of regular progressive numbers do not provide for purchases representing intermediate fractions, but that the several purchases were multiples of ve. This necessitates the 'making of change should the holder of the order make a purchase of a less value than five cents or Ioov where the terminal figure of the value of his purchase is less than live cents-as, for instance, two or three cents. To remedy this and to save much time and-inconvenience in using an order of the character described, the last column, b', of regular progressive amounts, omitting fractions, stops short, as Where marked 975, of the full-amount of the order by twenty-live cents or other specified sum, but which is here shown as twenty-five cents. This deficiency I make up bv a supplementary column, c, of intermediate fractions-that is, in the present illustration, of fractions less than five*the whole column aggregating twenty-live, which completes the full amount of the order, and by the side of this column is another column, d, of symbols, (here represented by X,) one symbol being opposite each fraction in the column c.

The use of the columns c and d Will now be explained. Supposing the holder of the order to make a purchase of the value of one of the fractions in the column c-say of the value of two cents-then the symbol X opposite the lirst figure 2 in the column c is punched, which Will show that the order only has been reduced two cents; but if said first figure 2 should be punched then it will be shown that all value up to this figure has been destroyed; or should the symbol X opposite the bottom or last ligure, l, in the column c be punched, then only the value of one cent would be taken off the order; but should said last figure l itself be punched the total value remaining on the order would be destroyed.

lt should be observed that the figures contained in the column c are grouped together in sums of five. The object of this is to make said column as easily counted as any of the other columns.

In the use of the order, before the value in the supplementary column c has been reached, as much as possible of the body of the orderthat is, of the columns b b-is used up or punched, only making use of the column cto deduct the odd change until said column c has been reached, when the value remaining on it is deducted, as hereinbefore stated.

This improvement upon the order to which the invention has reference admits of any desired amount being readily and rapidly taken off the order Without much mental labor or elfort by simply making one, two, or three punch-marks.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In credit or store orders having upon the face of them a series of columns of regular progressive amounts, omitting intermediate fractions, the combination, with a series of such columns, the last one of which stops short of the full amount of the order, of a supplementary column of intermediate fractions amounting in the aggregate to the balance necessary to complete the full value of the order, and an additional column of symbols arranged opposite or by the side of said supplementary column of intermediate fractions, essentially as herein shown and described, and for the purposes Specified.

CHARLES S. HEMPSTEAD.

Witnesses:

FRANK M. COLLIER, CHAS. NEMoN. 

